This past summer, Paramount Pictures gave us the opportunity to visit the set of Transformers: The Last Knight while they were shooting up in Pontiac, Michigan. The experience of being on a Michael Bay movie set is one that I’ll never forget, if only because of the amount of explosions, gunshots and debris myself and other members of the press saw in front of our eyes. We’ll have more about the experience of being on a Michael Bay production soon, but this portion of our set visit is dedicated to the story and characters.

While most moviegoers aren’t necessarily going into a Transformers movie with a lot of concern for the story and character development, that doesn’t mean there aren’t longtime fans of the franchise interested in how the battle of the Autobots and Decepticons continues in Transformers: The Last Knight. That includes the return of some human characters from previous movies, a few new ones and a deep dive into the mythology of Transformers in general. And of course, there are plenty of new Transformers, and one returning Transformer that fans will be happy to see more of.

In this set visit report, we run through everything we learned about the story, including where we find our human characters with regards to their relationship to Transformers. There are plenty of new details here that haven’t been revealed until now, so get the full rundown in our Transformers The Last Knight set visit report below.

Exploring the Transformers Mythology

At the end of Transformers: The Age of Extinction, Optimus Prime blasted off into space with The Seed, planning to confront The Creators who basically put out a hit on the Autobot leader for some reason. We spoke to franchise executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura of Optimus Prime’s role in Transformers: The Last Knight will see Optimus Prime following through on his self-imposed mission. He says:

We will explore that. I’m not going to give too much away. Definitely, he’s going to–it’s going to go back into the deep mythology of the Transformers and Cybertron, and how they were formed, and how the original Transformers–it’s going to go into a very deep dive into the mythology, is where he’s headed.

The story in Transformers: The Last Knight actually came from two different ideas for two different movies converging into one. Di Bonaventura explains, “As it turned out, there was not one idea that won the day for this movie. It ended up being two ideas in particular, so there was a bit of a combination thing that happened over time.” With regards to how these stories tie into the larger Transformers mythology and history of Cybertron (seen above in Transformers: Dark of the Moon), “one is in the Transformer’s mythology, billions of years ago, and one is hundreds of years ago.”

This exploration of Transformers mythology includes learning more about the history of Optimus Prime and Megatron, including the eventual conflict between Autobots and Decepticons:

If you go back in the mythology, how Transformers were actually created, where did it start, where did they go from being a sort of a slave-race to a sentient race–we’re delving into that aspect of the mythology. So the characters that are involved in there are Megatron before he’s Megatron, Optimus before he’s Optimus, the Librarian, the Quintessons, there’s a whole group of things that have to do with how, in a sense, the Transformers were birthed, and also with how they were divided. What brought up the division, and what were the jealousies involved.

This mythology also includes diving into Earth’s relationship with the Transformers and how they’ve been part of our own history. Apparently, there are aspects of Earth tied to Transformers mythology that we haven’t yet learned about. This likely has something to do with the medieval flashback sequences we’ve heard about involving King Arthur and his knights. But more on that later.

What’s Happening on Earth?

Transformers: Age of Extinction showed us that Transformers were labeled as public enemies after the Battle of Chicago in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Though it was believed that the Autobots were granted sanctuary after stopping the Decepticons yet again, they ended up being hunted down by the CIA so they could find Optimus Prime as part of their secret pact with Stanley Tucci’s character Joshua Joyce, who was going to give Optimus Prime over to Lockdown and The Creators in exchange for a Seed that would allow him to advance human technology by creating his own Transformers.

The destruction that followed has now led to Transformers being hunted down without mercy. Though there was a time when humans were working with Autobots, there’s now a mandate for a new team called the Transformers Reaction Force (TRF) to eradicate all of the Transformers, regardless of their affiliation. New cast member Santiago Cabrera is the leader of this team.

On the next page, find out what’s going on with the movie’s human characters, both new and old.